V IETNAM W AR : B ACKGROUND

D OMINO T HEORY Domino Theory: the idea that if one country falls to communism in Southeast Asia, the rest would soon follow

F IRST I NDOCHINA W AR Basically Vietnam’s War for independence Had been ruled by the French French vs. Viet Minh Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh Ended with a siege at the French fortress of Dien Bien Phu

G ENEVA A CCORDS The Geneva Accords were the peace agreement reached between France, China, and the Vietnamese Vietnam was to be temporarily split in half along the 17 th parallel (with the Ben Hai River as the border) North Vietnam was ruled by Ho Chi Minh

N GO D INH D IEM South Vietnamese leader Lived in the U.S. for a period United States in favor of him because of his Western thinking His people thought he was too Western, which was made worse by the fact that we was Catholic

B UDDHIST M ONKS To protest Diem, numerous Buddhist Monks set themselves on fire

D IEM A SSASSINATION Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated November, 1963 by his own men U.S. was ok with this This was 3 weeks before the Kennedy assassination Related? Either way, that is two major opponents of communism killed back-to-back